SkyDrive – 5GB of free storage

I like SkyDrive. Before it was invented, I used to have to load any files I wanted to share onto an FTP site somewhere, and then write clunky links to them. Now, I just drag my files onto my SkyDrive, and then provide a nice graphical link to them, like this:

But up until now, it’s been called Windows Live SkyDrive Beta. I’ve just received an email telling me that it’s been officially released, and the size has been increased to 5GB of free storage!

Anybody can get a SkyDrive, as it’s free – just sign up for it using your Windows Live/Passport ID, and you too can have 5GB of file storage online, with file storage areas for private, shared and public files. Gone are the days of moving files between home and work with a USB drive (which inevitably got lost somewhere between the two places).

Imagine – all of your students currently carrying their data around on a USB memory stick (and busily plugging them into USB ports all around your campus), could be using this. What would it cost you to give every one of your students 5GB of Internet-accessible storage on your network?

We include SkyDrive in our Live @ Edu service, which means that you could automatically provide accounts to all of your students, linked to their university email address.

Are there any plans to offer a way of connecting it to the operating system more. Like having it mounted as a drive say S: and then you could simply save to it from any application and be able to view files without having to access a website. Like how Apple’s iDisk works with their .Mac service.

This would make it more useful as its a pain having to upload through a website each time I want to save something or download something.